Next Tuesday, The European Parliament Votes To Ban All Your Porn. Yes, Really. Take Immediate Action.

Next Tuesday, the European Parliament will vote yes to a report calling for a legislative ban on all pornography in “media”. This “media” is worded to include the internet, and is broad and vague enough to even include photos you take of yourself and send to friends, as well as simple text messaging. This horrendous attack on our fundamental freedoms of speech and expression needs action now.

(UPDATE on the “Next Tuesday”: The bill passed but only after significant watering-down removing the worst of it.)

The deceptively-named report is titled Eliminating gender stereotypes in the EU, which sounds good and something you’d give your approval on first glance, right? We’ve seen this kind of deception before, with bills named things like “Stop Online Piracy Act” (SOPA), “Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement” (ACTA), and the “Patriot Act”, that were all named to trigger a “yes” vote, but which were really about tearing down the most fundamental of our rights and liberties.

The current state of affairs in the European Parliament is a clear majority in favor of this report, much because of its title and a belief that there’s nothing odd about it.

Next week’s vote, which will probably be on Tuesday, isn’t really on legislation as such – rather, it is about requesting legislation to be drafted on the matter, and final legislation will come back to a vote. Thus, this isn’t the final vote in the legislative process; rather, it’s the first vote in the legislative sausage machine (“what goes in, must come out”). This is a so-called initiative report. Still, it is important to send a very clear message that this is unacceptable at first opportunity, or it will become a legislative proposal which is much harder to fight.

As part of this report, we find a call to enforce a carpet ban on pornography, across “the media”. This is a hair-raising attack on freedom of speech and freedom of expression that should never have made it past the first cursory review (my highlighting):

17. Calls on the EU and its Member States to take concrete action on its resolution of 16 September 1997 on discrimination against women in advertising, which called for a ban on all forms of pornography in the media and on the advertising of sex tourism;

This refers to an earlier decision, which is just as horrendous and that neither can nor should be enforced:

Freedoms of speech and expression most definitely include sending erotic material – text, images, sound – between consenting adults. This is a political invasion of people’s bedrooms that is unacceptable and intolerable.

But “the media” is kind of vague in point 17 above – could it be referring only to commercial, for-profit media? Not really. If we look closer, we see that the Internet is most definitely included – and also that the European Parliament is trying to abdicate political responsibility for this decision, by pushing responsibility onto Internet Service Providers for policing the morals of a total carpet ban on anything remotely pornographic (my highlighting):

14. Points out that a policy to eliminate stereotypes in the media will of necessity involve action in the digital field; considers that this requires the launching of initiatives coordinated at EU level with a view to developing a genuine culture of equality on the internet; calls on the Commission to draw up in partnership with the parties concerned a charter to which all internet operators will be invited to adhere

So yes, the European Parliament is really voting to create a ban using language that is broad and vague enough in scope to include sexual communication between consenting adults over the internet, and using unaccountable Internet Service Providers to do their policing for them. This is as unacceptable as it gets, but make no mistake – the Members of European Parliament are going to vote yes to this report come Tuesday, unless they hear from us very loudly and clearly. In other words, it is therefore time to mail the European Parliament with our opinions.

You may remember how we did that in the anti-ACTA campaign. I have set up a mail alias that resolves to every Member of European Parliament (all some 750 of them); the mail alias is [email protected]. Mail them right now, regardless of whether you are an EU citizen or not. Write a mail with just whatever you feel about this issue from a personal standpoint, maybe picking inspiration from one of these sample letters, mixing and matching them, or rolling your own entirely:

UPDATE: Since lunchtime Thursday, the European Parliament is dishonorably classifying citizens and voters in their constituency as spam (!!) so you’ll need to put the mail alias on the BCC line, as below. You may have to enable it under “View => BCC” in your mail client. Further, you may want to use an alternative mail alias, [email protected].

Next week, the European Parliament will vote on an initiative report called “Eliminating gender stereotypes in the EU”. While this report may look beneficial and uncontroversial on the surface, it includes provisions to ban all kinds of pornographic material, across “the media”.

We can also read in the report that “the media” includes the Internet, and that Internet Service Providers are encouraged to do this policing in an unaccountable manner.

This is an unacceptable political invasion of people’s bedrooms. Fundamental freedoms of speech and expression most definitely include the ability to send erotic material between consenting adults in any manner they so choose and wish.

While there may be good parts in the report, as a whole, this report is not compatible with fundamental rights and freedoms in a democratic society. I therefore urge you to reject it.

Sincerely,
[Your Name]
[Your Country]

From: (You)To: Dear MEPs <make up an address>BCC:[email protected]Subject: Next week’s report on “eliminating gender stereotypes” must be rejected.

There is a report on “eliminating gender stereotypes” coming to a vote next week. This is a deceptive title; the report hides legislative language that is not compatible with fundamental rights and freedoms in a democratic society.

The report seeks an enforcement of a ban on every form of pornography, across a definition of media that includes the internet (points 14 and 17). Further, it calls on Internet Service Providers to enforce this ban, outside of legislative accountability.

This is a political invasion of adult people’s bedrooms that is neither acceptable nor tolerable. Politicians have no say in what consenting adults communicate between one another, and yet, this report seeks to impose an extrajudicial censorship of such communication in the most unaccountable of ways. I find this despicable and a completely unacceptable attack on the most basic of freedoms of speech and expression.

Therefore, I urge you to decisively REJECT this report, and also to tell your colleagues of its deceptive title compared to its actual contents.

There is an initiative report coming to a vote next week titled “Eliminating gender stereotypes in the EU”. This title is deceptive and hides an unacceptable attack on fundamental rights and freedoms – one that is not compatible with a democratic society.

Looking at points 14 and 17 in the report, it calls for a complete ban on all forms of pornography in media, and makes it clear that this includes anything on the Internet. In other words, it applies to any kind of erotic material – text, images, sound – and not just the commercial kind. This is a political invasion of adult people’s bedrooms – adult VOTERS’ bedrooms – that goes far beyond the tolerable. If consenting adults choose to share erotic material with one another, this is not a matter that politicians have any kind of say about.

While there may be good parts in the report, as a whole, this report is not compatible with fundamental rights and freedoms in a democratic society. I therefore
urge you to reject it and to inform your colleagues of this attempted deception.

Rick Falkvinge

Rick is the founder of the first Pirate Party and a low-altitude motorcycle pilot. He works as Head of Privacy at the no-log VPN provider Private Internet Access; with his other 40 hours, he's developing an enterprise grade bitcoin wallet and HR system for activism.

It’s not too late, which is why I wrote this now. Thousands of citizens demanding their right to pornography is a definite way to catch the Europarl completely off guard. Thanks for your contribution to freedom of speech!

Cheers,
Rick

harveyed

March 6, 2013

That is… whorible! Sorry couldn’t resist.

No seriously, this is sick. Real matriarchial oppression which I had hoped had not spread far from Sweden yet, but seems to have slipped into the EU. Women have exactly the same fucking rights to their sexuality and portraying themselves as sexual beings as men do – and to oppress that right is well… just oppression.

Gotta love the strategies they use. Great firewalls for everyone, start with unregulated porn censorship, just add copyright enforcement! I’m getting a mailer daemon when I try to send my email. I’m not certain if it’s only having trouble sending it to a single address or to all of them, though. If you like I can email you a copy of daemon mail.

harveyed

March 7, 2013

I got a few failed to send.. about 5-6. I guess you can expect that if there are over 700 MEPs all in all.

Xavier

March 6, 2013

Just to say that I had a message telling me that one of the address could not be reach ([email protected])

Bruno Filipe

March 6, 2013

Miguel Portas passed away on April 24th 2012.

Björn Persson

March 7, 2013

I got six bounces.

For miguel.portas and jiri.havel the EU parliament’s server gave the error code 5.2.3, which is supposed to mean “message length exceeds administrative limit”. That can’t be right; my message was short.

For frieda.brepoels the error was “550 5.7.1 Unknown recipient”, but 5.7.1 is supposed to mean that the sender is not authorized to send to the destination. Do their servers pick response codes completely at random?

For damien.abad, carl.haglund and rosario.crocetta I got autoreplies to the effect that they have left the EU parliament. (At least I think that’s what the one in French says too.)

So let me get this straight. A sizable chuck of the people online download porn, maybe even a majority of them. The politicians or special interest groups want to ban it, or use it as an excuse to ban other things and it seems like an easy target.

Talk about alienating the 18 to 35 year old crowd and shooting yourself in the foot. ﻿

Franklin

March 7, 2013

Voting to ban all porn instead of trying to protect the porn branch against exploitation and criminal elements? It’s unrealistic, asking for big problems and uncontrollable exploitation, comparable with prohibiting all liquor. People simply won’t except it and they are damn right!

But give me a call when the European parliament is voting against weapons of mass destruction or the use of drones against citizens or killing people in wars in general.

harveyed

March 7, 2013

Yes if you ban it it will creep into hiding and be much harder to expose and catch the criminals. If the film is an evidence of a crime commited, it is much easier to catch the criminal the more easily available the movie is. If it is freely available or at least legal there will be no or very small black market for it.

This assertion is not true, just quoting from the plain text quoted above. It is true that the wording “the media” refers to a 1987 decision, but it is obviously changed here to include the internet, which did not even exist in 1987.

So this is definitely not just a reminder. This adds new stuff – both in terms of private, unaccountable policing and in terms of regulating free speech online.

borderal

March 7, 2013

Internet isn’t just a medium, it’s also a private communication channel just like the post or the telefon. Adding internet to the 1997 media targeted by state piracy and police censorship only worsens the threat.

borderal

March 9, 2013

Internet isn’t juste a medium like radio or TV, it’s also a private communication channel like the post or telephone.

Adding internet to the media targeted by police censorship and political repression is a new step of the fashists’war against democracy and human rights.

Unfortunately, two produced a delivery failure. [email protected] has already been mentioned. Also received one for [email protected] (mail15.europarl.europa.eu[136.173.59.226] said: 550 5.7.1 Unknown recipient)

Andre Reis

March 7, 2013

Miguel Portas died last year.

Anonymous

March 7, 2013

This is so bad it sounds like a joke, like going back to the dark ages. Have we acheived nothing in the last two centuries?

Also, why is it still ok for legal proposals to be intntionally made with clearly missleading titles?
I believe this is part of the probem, an underlying vulnerability of the system that will continually cause troubles such as this because people can name a law “Super good for everyone law” when it is actually bad.
Something should be done about that to prevent more problems in the future please.

anonymous

March 7, 2013

There are plenty of people in the mail list that are replying (automatically) that they are no longer members of the parliament. You guys should really check that out and update the mailing list as soon as you can. After all, we want it to reach everyone.

I got a list of the mails that bounced, and have removed them from the list. This alias explodes to a LOT of people, and there’s no surprise some of them have left office in the months since ACTA (which is the list I reused to create this alias).

What I find funny is how so many of these email addresses are rejecting delivery. Sounds like quite a convenient way to pretend the issue isn’t happening.
Precisely the same reason they do this shit in secret where our protests can’t reach in the first place. They think if they can’t see what we have to say, that it means we have nothing to say.

Anonymous

March 7, 2013

Seriously? Do they not see that if all porn is taken away we will see rape cases skyrocket!
Porn keeps men satisfied with masturbation. If men aren’t satisfied they’re forced to try getting their hands on women AFK.

Lack of porn would lead to suffering for everyone!

smeag

March 7, 2013

Hmm… I think rape is more about power and domination, less about sexual drifts. I’m sure there’s little relation between rape and lack-of-porn by sane. I don’t think psychologically healthy men won’t be driven to rape when missing out on porn or sex. They just become annoying when drunk. However… instable men (the mental cases) could act and react to porn, or the lack of it.

Anyway; I agree that porn, sexual freedom and expression should have a place in our society without regulations from our governments.

smeag

March 7, 2013

I should not reply when drunk. Grammar sucks. Off to bed.

LittleGreenLeaf

March 7, 2013

“Hmm… I think rape is more about power and domination, less about sexual drifts.”

I believe rape is a much much more complex biological and cultural aspect of human life then reduced to a simple “power” issue.

If a human would like to excert power over another human being, there are so many other things he can do, for example publicly humiliate someone, mutilate someone, force someone to do hard menial useless tasks, etc. No the fundamental, and logical reason behind rape is truly biological, and sometimes used in war, both as a mean of reward for your own soldiers and as a tool to sow terror and fear among the enemy.

And what about the risks? Since at least the last 300 years, humans have known of the dangers of having sex with “undknown” partners, i.e. you can literally die from it! So why excert power over someone in a way that expose yourself to dangers that are debilitating or life threatening?

I do not find that explanation credible at all.

If I remember correctly, rape or sexual coercion is also rampant among our closest relatives in the animal kingdom, for example among chimpanzees, monkeys and among other higher mamals, especially dolphins. And if you would not like to ascribe that to excertion of cultural patriarchal “power”, and not biological evolutionary causes, I dare say you do have a serious logical problem.

And what about indigenous hunter gatherer and horticulturist societies? Take for example the Yanonomamö in the rainforest of Brazil and Venezuela, who “steal” wifes in raids and wars between villages?

I think that the “meme” of rape as “power” is not only to simplistic, but also truly dangerous, because it shields the true multifaceted reasons behind “rape”, and prevents objective investigation and real mitigating actions in our societies.

In all humility,

6.941

March 7, 2013

The sense of th EU proposition notwithstanding, no policy decisions should ever be built on the idea that half the population is incapable of respecting some of the most fundamental rights of the other half.

Also, what kind of moron do you have to be to need porn to masturbate if you’re horny enough to consider rape?

Anonymous

March 7, 2013

For some reason I don’t think you’re a man.
Or are you perhaps a buddhist monk?

6.941

March 7, 2013

Oh, I have a dick, all right. I stroke it regularly, no problems, porn or not. Occasionally I’ve gone for a few weeks without in order to build up a good rage for an extra boost to physical exercise. I also built up a huge throbbing lump of lust in the process. Nevertheless, not once did it occur to me to force myself on anyone.

Lack of self-control is one of the most despicable qualities you can find in a human. It is the property of a lower life form.

Anonymous

March 7, 2013

You are incredibly, incredibly sexist.

John Teller

March 7, 2013

This is ridiculous! I’ve sent the email. Thank you for bringing this to our attention. Is there anything else I can do?

Forest_GS

March 7, 2013

Governments really should always ask “is this enforceable at all?” before suggesting any law.

Something like this is impossible to enforce now that the internet exists, and there will be far too much collateral damage with almost no success.

Thomas

March 7, 2013

Actually no it’s not. You need to think big enough to see it’s possible. Just build a big and tight Firewall of EU, put anyone inside to jail and block everything from outside.

Just like China is doing it and it’s obvious that _that_ is the real goal of this initiative, everything else is designed to put this starting level to legislation. Then tighten the noose, step by step as “earlier steps have proved to be inefficient”. This is so common that it is “the standard method.”

It is possible if you stomp on freedoms with iron boot and the makers of this initiative don’t give a damn about anyones freedoms. They are fascists, the sneaky aka worst kind.

borderal

March 7, 2013

Thank you Thomas !

kurisu7885

March 8, 2013

In other words make the internet completely unusable within your borders.

Anonymous

March 7, 2013

Well, I hope you don’t mind anonymous emails, because I just sent one using an anonymous remailer.

Anonymous Coward

March 7, 2013

They aren’t banning porn outright. If you read the EU Official Journal C304 you would find out exactly what they are banning.

Try doing some fucking research next time.

leovingi

March 7, 2013

Honestly, I wouldn’t even focus on just the porn ban! This whole motion is just moronic, almost every point of it. Take this, for example:

“47. Draws attention to the fact that the representation of women in national governments stood at 23 % in 2009 and supports the introduction of binding quotas in order to increase the number of women in national governments and parliaments and at regional and municipal levels, as well as in the EU institutions; also urges the introduction of awareness and incentive campaigns, encouraging women to be more politically active and to run for local or national government;”

Screw democracy, quotas for everyone!
I’ve seen some bad bills being passed in the name of protecting women and enforcing their rights, but this is quickly getting out of hand!
Now, obviously, this will never pass and is not enforceable, but even the idea that something this ludicrous can even be presented as an option, is a major issue that needs to be addressed.

Please note that a gender-stereotype view of woman as “less sexual” is hidden in this proposal. It is axiomaticly implied that WOMEN do not like porn and that WOMEN less than men can enjoy the sight of a naked body.

And…

What about concent. Voluntary nudity in porn is said to be the same as force and not concentual porn.

Joan

March 7, 2013

One of the most successful comic kickstarters was Smut Peddler, a women-friendly anthology of porn comics drawn by women.

And one only needs an hour on tumblr to see that women are no strangers to porn.

It’s a really harmful notion that women don’t enjoy sex or pornography; they do, just maybe not the mainstream pornography.

This must not happen. It would throw women liberation back to the 1600 century since one of the powertools used by men the past 2000 years has been just sex.

Women has just started to fins out that sex can be good, they have just began reconicing their own sexuality. Don´t kill it again?

Assembly Line Human

March 7, 2013

This quote says it all really.

[i]The deceptively-named report is titled Eliminating gender stereotypes in the EU, which sounds good and something youd give your approval on first glance, right?[/i]

He is saying that lefty sounding social control programs sound good. It is because of people like HIM, that bills like this make it to see the light of day.

If you say its OK to try and shape people thoughts, then how else are people going to do it aside form controlling what people say and think?

You have got to stop stop giving credits to people who think they are social crusaders. This is what it leads to! It doesn’t matter when its ‘ending sexism’, ‘ending racism’, or whatever other do good philosophy. If you support an initiative created by someone else to spread morals, then it LOGICALLY follows that they are going to have to shape peoples communication.

How do you think they are going to do this? By doing things like controlling digital communication.

Freedom of speech is tied with freedom of thought. If you want to shape peoples thoughts, you have to shape peoples speech. If you want to shape their speech EFFECTIVELY, you will likely need to put in some laws to that effect, and from there, censorship.

Captain sensitive

March 7, 2013

This is welcome news to me and millions of parents. Start squealing you sick perverts.

Child

March 7, 2013

Mommy, when are you getting off the computer? I’m lonely..

Thomas

March 7, 2013

How did you sick pervert _come to be_ a parent? Did you have sex or not? So while sex _for you_ is good, it’s bad for others and therefore _they_ are “sick perverts”?

Nice gender racism right there. Did you realize that you are a racist?

kurisu7885

March 8, 2013

In other words you’re happy wit hthe govenrment doing your job for you while you get toe be lazy. If you don’t want your kids seeing porn, learn how ot use internet filters or better, monitor your own kid’s internet activity.

kurisu7885

March 8, 2013

In other words you’re lazy and don’t want to do the work of setting up an internet filter or monitoring what your child does online and expect the government to do it for you.

Captain obvious

March 8, 2013

You all realize that, with a name like Captain sensitive, this might just be a troll. I mean…just maybe.

Yerune

March 7, 2013

It’s not about porn, it’s about forcing people to comply to the EU’s expectations, while it should be living up to the people’s expectations.

You fools! You don’t even know what porn is!!!! It’s dehumanizing. Take your time to read a bit about it, find out what you could do with sexual energy instead of wasting it on porn. Im not saying gov has the right to tell you what you should do with yourself. It’s just for those of you who don’t know why there is porn, and what it is.

harveyed

March 7, 2013

You seem so very sure of yourself what porn is. Porn is starting to become what people want it to be. I can understand if you find most professionally produced porn not to be to your liking, but this bill proposes to make it impossible for people to change your view of what porn can be. Many couples have started uploading their own films of what they consent to and if that is not freedom of speech, then I don’t know what is.

Joan

March 7, 2013

As someone who has been researching different kinds of porn and matters of human sexuality I would say YOU don’t really know much about porn.

No, it becomes free speech and consensual behavior long before somebody films it.

Funny, you use “godless” as if it were an insult. I’m quite happy my mind is not constrained by the idiocy found in dogmatic religion.

Educatedfather

March 7, 2013

The defense of pornography has rested on the basis of it being in media,that is a camera rolling.without the camera its just prostitution.Pornography IS depictions of male prostitution.Women,whether they consent to enjoy or not ARE being economically exploited.Porn is bad for families that have kept a spiritual life,as well as a role model for girls and boys.

You might do well to lighten up on the whisky and detox your system.

harveyed

March 7, 2013

Except that it is not just prostitution. You would probably be surprised if you found out about all the consenting adult couples showing their sex life online. Some of them are doing it just for fun, and some are earning lots of money on it.

God

March 7, 2013

Stop speaking on my behalf.

Jesus

March 7, 2013

Hey Dad was up? hows your new wife?
PS.
Please buy me a ps4

harveyed

March 7, 2013

If it is not freedom of speech… then explain why so many grown adults couples film what they do together as a hobby and upload to sites on the internet.

Do you mean it will be more difficult to find and persecute those who actually do criminal acts on camera if they upload it to the internet? I would say it would be much more difficult to persecute them if they were not allowed to upload anything at all, because then no one could see it and no one could report it.

Goldfish

March 7, 2013

Mailed them; as a woman I do not need these people, mostly men, to tell me what I find offensive. I find it offensive that they would hide behind my demographic to try and pass unenforceable legislation which is invasive to my privacy.

Watch them cry “For the children!” next.

Mary

March 7, 2013

Free speech, I’m a woman and I don fund it offensive, these women chose to do this, it’s consensual and I say go for it, it’s such a massive industry there is no way they can get rid of it. To quote the above commenters, don’t speak on my behalf

reg

March 7, 2013

i sent an email to that email address but i haven’t got any confirmation emails yet. Was I meant to get some? Is [email protected] still working?

And – even worse:
19. Calls on the Member States to establish independent regulation bodies with the aim of controlling the media and advertising industry and a mandate to impose effective sanctions on companies and individuals promoting the sexualisation of girls;

Anonymous

March 7, 2013

“individuals promoting the sexualisation of girls;”

See the hypocrisy involved: sexualisation of boys or men is totally OK.

It’s obvious that this initiative is written by bunch of fascist feminists: Total disrespect to human rights and every regulation talks only about female rights.

I probably didn’t help the cause but i sent them an angry mail, hopefully they’ll get “mail-bombarded” enough to see through their own thick skulls.

Meh

March 7, 2013

The government should not try and take these videos down, and should focus instead on using these videos to catch any abusive pimps, hunt down any real pedophiles, and get videos off the air IF the woman asks for it.

Also, to those who think government shouldn’t have anything to do with the Internet, it’s really easy to forget that it was initially government and government aligned corporations that helped create both the Internet and the GPS System

Even if this report doesn’t lead to a ban on all porn, its general tone is extremely concerning. The report is single-mindedly focused on negative stereotypes of women in media, and refuses to even acknowledge that there are negative stereotypes of men too. For example, men are routinely portrayed as stupid, slobbish, selfish, insensitive, uncultured, etc in the media, especially in advertising (not that I’m saying this should be censored or regulated, mind)

It speaks volumes that the report was drafted by “The Committee on Women’s Rights and Gender Equality”. Does anyone else notice the ironic contradiction in that title? The committee on gender equality and the rights of only one gender.

Finally, as an author of fetish literature that casts female characters in submissive or victim roles (of course I never condone inflicting harm on any non-consenting person in real life), I am very concerned that a law like this would lead to my work being censored.

I will undoubtedly discuss this in a thorough manner tomorrow night at AVFM Radio – The Voice of Europe and Saturday, A Voice for Men will take stand against this and popularize the e-mailing campaign (both through your service and individually).
This is sick!

Who came with this fucking idea is an religious mentally retarded and have no place in european parliament, actually, no one who believe that fairy tales are true should be in any parliament.
Religions should be banned everywhere.

Koopler

March 7, 2013

So you decide to lean towards the other extremist end of the spectrum. Banning porn is criminal, but banning religion is OK!!!!1!

Banning ANYTHING which infringes on personal freedoms is wrong, period. Fuck off to North Korea, no religion there!

telmunen

March 7, 2013

…and if you read the reference in that report you can see the ban of porn includes only advertisements. And it is really not even a ban, just a call for action to give “special orientation courses” for ad regulators in member states.

I received e-mail from GARCÍA-PEREZ Iratxe as response to my e-mail I sent:

QUOTE:

“What the report says exactly is:
.
whereas young women and men are most affected by pornography’s new cultural status; whereas the ‘mainstreaming of pornography’, i.e. the current cultural process whereby pornography is slipping into our everyday lives as an evermore universally accepted, often idealised, cultural element, manifests itself particularly clearly within youth culture: from teenage television and lifestyle magazines to music videos and commercials targeted at the young;

Calls on the EU and its Member States to take concrete action on its resolution of 16 September 1997 on discrimination against women in advertising, which called for a ban on all forms of pornography in the media and on the advertising of sex tourism;

We refer mainly to publicity in the written media and television. Freedom to watch a porno film remains intact.

But as it is true that this is not clear in the paragraph,we have decided to ask for a split vote to delete the sentence. Therefore, the words ” which called for a ban on all forms of pornography in the media” will be deleted from the report.”

END QUOTE.

leovingi

March 7, 2013

Just got the same response. I did ask her about all the other points, especially 47 about implementing quotas for women in government, but so far – no reply.

Anonymous

March 7, 2013

UK MP Clare Perry is behind this, certainly in the UK. what it points to for me is that she doesn’t believe she can rear her own children without the government telling her how to do it. when you have your right to parent removed, your ability to bring up children in the correct way, you should have your right to produce children removed as well. stop passing the buck, blaming others if you fail as a parent. the last thing needed is some friggin political idiot telling people how to be a mum or dad!

Wonderful! It’s high time to ban this poisonous filth! I’m sure the Jews will vote a decisive “NO,” however, as they love destroying the goyim with their filth + earn big bucks from it at the same time.

Gerrit

March 7, 2013

I’m completly against this !!!

Citizen

March 7, 2013

VERY GOOD EU..
I fully support this idea to ban the filth-porn.
All countries should do same thing

mike wazowski

March 7, 2013

Those damn Jews

kvikk

March 7, 2013

Comparing this to SOPA or ACTA is ridiculous. There’s no attack on freedom of speech, or our liberties on the internet, in this report.

The only mention of pornography in the entire report is a call for action in relation to a resolution from 1997, which called for a ban on pornography in media. If nothing has been done since 1997, why will it change now?

Creating hysteria and throwing wrenches in the upstart of a legislation pertaining to equality between genders, over some fear of loosing access to pornography (which will never happen), is just silly.

Fight for real causes.

leovingi

March 7, 2013

Real causes? You mean like protesting against idiotic ideas like “… the introduction of binding quotas in order to increase the number of women in national governments and parliaments and at regional and municipal levels…”

I do not agree with Rick’s decision to only focus on 1 paragraph, but let’s not kid ourselves – this whole motion is absurd!

[…] on a resolution to ”ban all forms of pornography in media”. After this information became known to a wider audience, many citizens have decided to contact members of the European parliament to express their views on […]

whereas young women and men are most affected by pornography’s new cultural status; whereas the ‘mainstreaming of pornography’, i.e. the current cultural process whereby pornography is slipping into our everyday lives as an evermore universally accepted, often idealised, cultural element, manifests itself particularly clearly within youth culture: from teenage television and lifestyle magazines to music videos and commercials targeted at the young;

Calls on the EU and its Member States to take concrete action on its resolution of 16 September 1997 on discrimination against women in advertising, which called for a ban on all forms of pornography in the media and on the advertising of sex tourism;

We refer mainly to publicity in the written media and television. Freedom to watch a porno film remains intact.

But as it is true that this is not clear in the paragraph,we have decided to ask for a split vote to delete the sentence. Therefore, the words ” which called for a ban on all forms of pornography in the media” will be deleted from the report.

Got a few responses, other than the bounce-splatter from accounts that no longer exist;
The one mentioned above, from GARCÍA-PEREZ Iratxe; a couple from MEPs in the UK asking for me to re-reply with a more specific location as to where I am (presumably so they can filter out whether I can safely be ignored, or whether they can count on my vote.);

and a one from Mr. Agnew’s (UKIP) office, confirming they will not support the report (Unsurprisingly, really.)

> The UKIP MEPs were elected on a platform of withdrawal from the EU.
> Therefore, they are opposed to unelected officials at the European
> Commission being given the power to control the internet, as a matter of
> principle. This is not compatible with fundamental rights and freedom, in a
> democratic society.

> Unfortunately, the EU is a serious threat to democracy and does everything
> possible to undermine the elected Governments and Parliaments in the member
> states.

> Rest assured, that we will continue to strongly oppose this and to campaign
> for UK withdrawal.

Stereotypes dictate how society expects people to behave. Much like laws tell how people should behave. Laws cannot be ‘accurate’ and neither can stereotypes be. So if you’re suggesting that stereotypes are accurate, then you definately do not know what they are.

Also, stereotypes might not be evil, but I certainly have seen them do much more harm than good.

Let’s see. I quote actual academic material on stereotype research. You respond with an obviously false claim without sources.

I leave the readers to judge.

As for stereotypes ‘dictating’. They dictate no such thing. They are generalizations. Of course, reasonable people use stereotypes to form opinions about how someone will likely behave. This is after all, what generalizations are useful for.

[…] Next Tuesday, the European Parliament Votes To Ban All Your Porn. Yes, Really. Take Immediate Acti… (Falkvinge on Infopolicy March 6, 2013): Next Tuesday, the European Parliament will vote yes to a […]

[…] the Commission to bring in self-regulation. Recognising this, people like Rick Falkvinge have been asking Europeans to write to their representatives to urge them to reject the report, as Techdirt user rudeholm pointed out. But as Engström now reports, emails on these censorship […]

LittleMongrel

March 7, 2013

Why is everyone jumping the gun on this? It’s fucking media blowing things out of proportion.

“This is what is being voted on:

“Calls on the EU and its Member States to take concrete action on its resolution of 16 September 1997 on discrimination against women in advertising, which called for a ban on all forms of pornography in the media and on the advertising of sex tourism. ”

Advertising of pornography in the media. That’s what is being voted on. The rest is wild speculation and fear mongering.

harveyed

March 7, 2013

Well. “Media” includes the internet. And on the internet anyone can be a publisher. Women have just the same rights to reach out and show us their views about sex as men do.

Call me Cynical

March 7, 2013

Read this on Slashdot;

“The IT department of the European Parliament is blocking the delivery of the emails on this issue, after some members of the parliament complained about getting emails from citizens.”

It just goes to show how Politicians and their ilk wouldn’t cross the street to piss on the rest of us.

Pedro

March 7, 2013

Tonight i will write something and try to spread the word as much as possible. Thanks for the help, Rick.

That’s absolutely brilliant!! All pornography everywhere needs to be banned completely from the internet!

Anonymous trans-woman

March 7, 2013

As a trans-woman, I’m quite well known with all the issues and suffering caused by gender stereotypes. As trans-people are often forced to fully confirm with their gender. So I really welcome all action that is taken to eliminate gender stereotypes.

I’m also quite aware of the difference between gender and sex. Gender is a very complicated concept that in no way is limited to male or female. However, in the report they consider both to be the same thing. Sure, sexual violence must be stopped, but is a whole different topic that has nothing to do with gender stereotypes.

Another point that must have been missed by the report writers, is that elimination of gender stereotypes must be in strong conflict of various religuous views. So unless this proposal gets a hard time to be accepted by Catholic parties, it is not really eliminating gender stereotypes.

Unfortunately your posts indicate that you know very little of the subject, and are out of touch with reality. It is unfortunate that you have not learned from personal experience. I refer readers to the previous comments and the evidence cited within in.

[…] the Commission to bring in self-regulation. Recognising this, people like Rick Falkvinge have been asking Europeans to write to their representatives to urge them to reject the report, as Techdirt user rudeholm pointed out. But as Engström now reports, emails on these censorship […]

Henry

March 7, 2013

GOOD LET THEM BAN THE DEGENERATE FILTH! PORN HAS TURNED PEOPLE INTO TYPE OF DRUG ADDICTS, OUR ANCESTORS DIDN’T NEED THIS SH#T WHY SHOULD WE?
SIMPLE, GOES OUTSIDE AND FIND A REAL GIRL EN-STEAD OF LIVING IN UNLESS FANTASIES!!!!

kurisu7885

March 8, 2013

There have been pornographic drawings found on cave walls as well as wood and stone carvings of the same nature, so nice try

[…] This report has raised some questions and got a lot of people pretty pissed, Rick Falkfinge raised the alarm and put together a fightback. […]

mrbrucewayne

March 8, 2013

It’s amazing how some people think they have the right to try and govern other peoples lives while invading their freedoms. As if an unmarried man or woman should not be entitled to freedoms of thought and expression without someone who’s just plain nosy trying to micro-manage their lives.

Get loud and violent and attack those who even submit such bills and make it clear to governments to stay out of our freedoms

Sounds like yet another case of feminists and conservatives ganging up to control male sexuality, like Andrea Dworkin and the Republicans back in the eighties. I would have expected better from Europe, but perhaps i’m not paying enough attention.

[…] Although the vote on the report is not legally binding, if passed, the proposal could end up influencing EU law. According to Wired UK, the chances of an EU-wide pornography ban are slim, but free speech critics are nonetheless concerned about the report’s vague language. […]

[…] Although the vote on the report is not legally binding, if passed, the proposal could end up influencing EU law. According to Wired UK, the chances of an EU-wide pornography ban are slim, but free speech critics are nonetheless concerned about the report’s vague language. […]

[…] Although the vote on the report is not legally binding, if passed, the proposal could end up influencing EU law. According to Wired UK, the chances of an EU-wide pornography ban are slim, but free speech critics are nonetheless concerned about the report’s vague language. […]

hahaha

March 8, 2013

Probably not the popular opinion, but I hope it goes through. Sex is just stupid, it is nasty and unpleasant procedure for having babies and people who are obsessed about it just get really narrow-minded, judge others based on their appearance and are very selfish. I am not religious but happy to get all sex and porn banned forever. People have other, much cleaner methods to make babies right now. I don’t want random porn, like ugly ads, to ruin my pure mind.

d...

March 8, 2013

I realize you’re probably trolling, but what the hell…

It’s perfectly fine for you to not like sex. You can go your entire life being celibate, which is fine if that’s what you want.

It’s NOT fine for you to decide that no one else should like it either. If others want to have messy, dirty sex and film it on video and share it over the internet, that’s none of your business.

Yep, by all means, while the U.S. is collapsing economically, young teens and their parents are on drugs, rape, child molestation, murder, etc. are on the rise, let’s worry about banning porn. How sick exactly has this country become? But then, when someone as utterly talentless as the Kardasian sisters make millions, one because of the size of her ass………. what’s left to wonder about?

6.941

March 8, 2013

You’re aware that this is the European Parliament, not US Congress, right?

It’s sad that people really feel that they have the right to decide what other adults, can and cannot say, or see..

It is also the first steps towards a totalitare state, first introduce censorship, in a way that can be acceptet by the population, and make sure to formulate it so that it is open endeded – that is illegal material – first step. then you expand your laws to prohibit critism of the state (ofc not as obivious as this), and your censorship laws automatically apply. Now you have a media blanket, and just have to get rid of vocal groups, which is done by making them “dissappear”..

The recipy has been used many times throughout history, and is starting again in EU now..

I cannot fathom that a group of people think that they have the right to judge other people’s morals, and forbid harmless acts, in the name of the “greater good” – which incidentally is defined by the same group.

[…] horrendous attack on our fundamental freedoms of speech and expression needs action now," he wrote on his blog. "This isn't the final vote in the legislative process; rather, it's the first vote in the […]

[…] horrendous attack on our fundamental freedoms of speech and expression needs action now," he wrote on his blog. "This isn't the final vote in the legislative process; rather, it's the first vote in the […]

“What the report says exactly is:
.
whereas young women and men are most affected by pornography’s new cultural status; whereas the ‘mainstreaming of pornography’, i.e. the current cultural process whereby pornography is slipping into our everyday lives as an evermore universally accepted, often idealised, cultural element, manifests itself particularly clearly within youth culture: from teenage television and lifestyle magazines to music videos and commercials targeted at the young;

Calls on the EU and its Member States to take concrete action on its resolution of 16 September 1997 on discrimination against women in advertising, which called for a ban on all forms of pornography in the media and on the advertising of sex tourism;

We refer mainly to publicity in the written media and television. Freedom to watch a porno film remains intact.

But as it is true that this is not clear in the paragraph,we have decided to ask for a split vote to delete the sentence. Therefore, the words ” which called for a ban on all forms of pornography in the media” will be deleted from the report.”

Amie

March 8, 2013

Emailed a personal email, since I thought that’d be better than a boilerplate. Do that if you have the inclination and time.

[…] Although the vote on the report is not legally binding, if passed, the proposal could end up influencing EU law. According to Wired UK, the chances of an EU-wide pornography ban are slim, but free speech critics are nonetheless concerned about the report’s vague language. […]

[…] in the European Convention of Human Rights”. Meanwhile, Pirate Party founder Rick Falkvinge described it as “a hair-raising attack on freedom of speech and freedom of […]

Is this a joke?!

March 9, 2013

OMG no porn! wtf is this, Saudi Arabia? China? How about freedom of choice?
I bet woman made this law when I read the “discrimination against women in advertising” and then the feminist crap that packs it up with “gender equality”, when I hear that crap I already know it’s all about woman’s rights and man-hating laws.
Why not banning the crappy porno novels like the 50 shades of gray that got promoted by all the media, that women jerk off to? No,it’s straight to bash pron, wtf why bashing porn again, it’s the internet and people don’t even expose it to anyone other than THEMSELVES.

[…] the wording is almost too absurd to ever be taken seriously. But if you are genuinely worried, Rick Falkvinge helpfully provides a way to contact Europe’s MEPs (although in all likelihood your email […]

Nick

March 9, 2013

Awesome… No More Jewish Propaganda Pron that being used to destroy morals, ethics, & families…
And you think this is taking away freedom of speech… Europe doesn’t have any take the “Holohoax” question the Holy Number of 6 million and go straight to prison… So why would the jews want to ban their biggest legal money maker… Well they won’t… The jews like porn… So unless a Europe is trying to free themselves from Jewish Porn then this will be a great victory… But I don’t have much hope… In the end Jewish Porn will still be legal all over Europe… and the HoloHoax will still be illegal…
FUCK PORN… And all you Porn Addictics out thier who support it… Boycott Porn & Hollywood Please

[…] Parliament in effort to stifle free speech Next Tuesday, The European Parliament Votes To Ban All Your Porn. Yes, Really. Take Immediate Action… This is a sinister effort to stifle free speech masquerading as (yet another) piece of gender […]

This is shocking in so many ways, that I can`t even begin to describe it. I t would also make it more lucrative to make porn. Anyone remember what happened when they banned alcohol before the 2nd world war?

KClemens

March 9, 2013

So they want to ban advertising for pornography?

Sorry, I never saw ads in tv, newspapers, magazine or single web pages advertising pornography neither any ads for sex travels. Unless you declare articles and reports in newspapers, magazines in the internet or tv as “advertising”.

May be that we have a special porn and sex free advertising zone in Germany – but at least I doubt this.

And what the hell are gender stereo types? To say “sie” when talking about a women and “er” when talking about a man and “es” when talking aobut a child?

Sorry, but that’s reality! Mankind is full of “sie”, “er” and “es”. To talk straight: Without “sie” and “er” NO “es”!

Does anyone knows more about these women pushing that?

Anonymous

March 9, 2013

Never categorically now to stop Porno F*** OF European bastard

Anonymous

March 9, 2013

NO NONONONONONNever categorically NO to stop Porno F*** OF European bastard

Anonymous

March 9, 2013

Never categorically NO to stop Porno F*** OF European bastard

Phantom

March 10, 2013

I really don’t get this bs they are coming up with. The first thing they should learn about laws and making them, should be: “Make law proposals, and their upper limits, based on the worst misuse you can imagine, both now and in the future”. It’s for that same reason we have limits to the power of the police and military. It should be hammered into their skull at every opportunity and it should be their freaking motto.
Without a reasonable limit, it will just keep escalating and they can keep saying “but we abide by the law”.
What is wrong with these people and why are they so detached from the ones they are making the laws for? I thought these people were supposed to be smart and actually consider before voting, instead we get antbrains who are caught by a flashy headline and never seem to actually read any of the rest.
I don’t know how it came to this, but it seems like 80% of politicians are a real embarrassment compared to the standard they ought to abide.

[…] to improve gender equality, the EU is preparing to vote on banning all forms of pornography. Rick Falkvinge has described the vote as a deceptively named (Eliminating gender stereotypes in the EU) bill that was “really about […]

[…] Although the vote on the report is not legally binding, if passed, the proposal could end up influencing EU law. According to Wired UK, the chances of an EU-wide pornography ban are slim, but free speech critics are nonetheless concerned about the report’s vague language. […]

How is porn “discrimination of women”? I’m not even going to explain why porn isn’t discrimination but aren’t there a ton of men in porn as well? Why is it only discrimination against women but not men?

I don’t get the world anymore. It seems the matriarch has arrived. Logic is out the door. Feelings of women come in. And pussified men in government do nothing of course. Anything to hold that female vote.

[…] of the bloggers writing about this was the Pirate Party’s founder Rick Falkvinge, who asked citizens to email members of the European Parliament to let their views be heard, and set up a simple internet service to make it easy to find the […]

Ban all porn? That means to reduce the income to 1% of a whole industry, millions will be affected, may be the industry itself should take a stronger stand.
And about the consumers, as long as you have a reliable vpn like http://vpnarea.com you do not have to worry that you have a couple of lesbians .avi on your computer. Who would even know that they are there if nobody can monitor your traffic? Encrypt them and there you go, sleep safe.
But if it comes to this, consider leaving the EU zone for a more privacy-free country, like Syria :))

[…] This morning, a lot of confusion was caused as hundreds and hundreds of people mailed (as per yesterday’s article) to all of Parliament. The issue went from a done deal to open for discussion. This was a huge win […]

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